This article made me angry (too), when I´ve read it this morning. Ok, maybe it would be better for the king to stop answering political questions...and probably it would be really better to stop whale-hunting completely...but it´s a shame that Expressen makes a big headline without mentioning the "buts" and "whens" the king has stated in the interview. And it looks as if Expressen has asked him on purpose to have an anti-monarchy-headline.

GrandDuchess

09-09-2004 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lena

it looks as if Expressen has asked him on purpose to have an anti-monarchy-headline.

Which is strange really, with all these "scandal" type articles they write - since it's a right-wing paper... It defeats their purpose.

The writer Björn Ranelid critizes queen Silvias way of speaking. He thinks her language is worse than 97 % of the women in Sweden.
"Its tabu to critizise the royal family but sometimes it has to be done, he says.

Lena

09-18-2004 05:10 PM

Author attacks the Queen's Swedish

Last week the press focused on the discrimination faced by immigrants when potential employers hear their foreign name or accent. This week, one immigrant's Swedish slip-ups earned her a very public language lesson.

The immigrant in question is Queen Silvia, and Thursday's Expressen carried a harsh attack on her linguistic ability by the author Björn Ranelid.

"She has never even formulated a metaphor," he complained, speaking at a seminar on justice.

Ranelid pointed out that thousands of immigrants in Sweden struggle alone with the language, and find it very hard to be accepted in Sweden if they don't speak it perfectly. Even when they crack the grammar, he said, many still don't get jobs.

In contrast, the queen, who moved to Sweden in 1976, "has had special lessons at [the royal theatre] Dramaten and personal speech therapists", according to Expressen.

"But her speech is full of grammatical errors," said Ranelid, citing the occasional failure to give an adjective its correct form - something The Local is certainly in no position to criticise.

"She is a bad example for everyone who is cleaning and toiling away," he said of the woman who grew up in Brazil and Germany and apparently already spoke six languages before she came to Sweden at the age of 32.

While Ranelid may have been trying do his bit for integration, he perhaps ought to have considered the fact that the queen's occasional slips probably do more for furthering the acceptance of immigrants in Sweden than perfect grammar ever would.

And nobody complained about her grammar or pronunciation on Wednesday when she opened a conference on Motor Neurone Disease, attended by some of the world's leading researchers. In her speech she referred to the popular TV presenter Ulla Carin-Lindquist, who died of the disease in March of this year.

"The disease was given a very clear face through Ulla Carin-Lindquist's open and brave fight," she said.

Meanwhile, another of the king´s friends caused the royal household minor embarassment this week when he locked himself in his house with "a lot of weapons" and had to be talked out by special police units.

Expressen reported that the 68 year old captain and former royal chamberlain refused to come out peacefully until the police referred to him by his title.

"You will call me baron, or else I'm not coming out," he said.

The man, who shares the king's interest in fast cars and is apparently in his hunting team, was taken by police to St Göran's hospital in Stockholm after they agreed to his demand.

A spokesman said they confiscated a shotgun and five rifles from the man.

A question to Swedes or people, who are very good in speaking swedish. How poor is Queen Silvia´s grammar really? I know that she has an accent (Even I can hear it...her swedish doesn´t sound as "round" or as "singing"-swedish is a very melodic language-as the swedish of native speakers) and I would say that´s just normal for woman, who has learned this language at that age (32), but I didn´t know before, that her use of grammar is bad as well. So I wonder, if it´s really that bad, or if this guy just wanted to provoke (???)

Yennie

09-19-2004 06:42 AM

I think she "should" be able to speak better swedish, she seems to be a "language person", and she spoke 6? languages before she came to Sweden.
However, I understand that swedish isn´t the easiest language to learn and she was 32 when she came here. So that must have make it hard.
But she does have a strong accent and makes many grammar misstakes...

So I can understand his(the writers) point. Here in Sweden one has to have very good language to get a job, but the lady who is "in charge" of the country hasn´t. So that could be seen as a problem...
But I think queen Silvia does a great job and she is a wonderful and admirable person who does many good things for the country and the swedish people.

Danielle

09-19-2004 07:03 AM

That's really sad that people can't get jobs. My friend is learning Swedish and plans to move to Sweden and she will be devastated to find out that she probably won't find a job there.

Just a question; when Silvia speaks, can you understand everything she says, or is her accent really bad that people have trouble understanding her? Is it really true she can’t even “[formulate] a metaphor”? I mean, even I can form a metaphor in French and I have only been doing it for a few years. Mind you, Swedish is much harder than French. Silvia seems like a nice person though and I’m sure the Swedish people are proud to have her as their Queen. I wish in Australia we had royalty.

Danielle =)

Yennie

09-19-2004 08:16 AM

No, her language isnt that bad. One who speaks swedish understands everything she says. If she say something wrong one can always "guess" and a swede could easily replace the wrong word with the right one. But if someone who isnt fluent in swedish heard it, perhaps he or she couldn´t?
I´ve heard from others that swedish is difficult to learn...
Hope everything works out for your friend, Danielle!

Alexandria

09-19-2004 09:12 AM

For those who followed Silvia's arrival in Sweden or are in the know about it, about how much time did it take for Silvia to grasp the Swedish language competently enough to carry on her royal duties? Although she was older, and learning a language is always more difficult the older you are, she also knew several languages so she had a bit of an advantage, even if the languages were all very different from Swedish.

rop81

09-19-2004 09:14 AM

Yennie has right you do understand her and what she´s meaning, but she speeks very poor swedish if you think about how long time she has lived here, the teachers and resorces that she has had. I know many imigrants that has been here for just about 10 years that speaks fluent swedish, and not just young persons, so i think that it´s quite bad of her. I myself can get rather "irritated" when i see an intervjue with the queen beacuse all of the grammar faults that she is saying.

Lyle

09-28-2004 12:17 AM

I'm really curious about Queen Silvia's language issues...so what language does she speak with her husband and children? If her Swedish is so poor it would seem odd that it would be the language she would use with them, but I also remember reading on one of the threads that she has an accent speaking German now, too, which would make me think that German wouldn't be her first language anymore...anyway, if anyone has any information to share I would love to hear it.

La la

09-28-2004 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lyle

I'm really curious about Queen Silvia's language issues...so what language does she speak with her husband and children? If her Swedish is so poor it would seem odd that it would be the language she would use with them, but I also remember reading on one of the threads that she has an accent speaking German now, too, which would make me think that German wouldn't be her first language anymore...anyway, if anyone has any information to share I would love to hear it.

I believe she's Brazilian on her mother's side and German on her father's side. And she is multilingual. It has been reported that she also speaks Spanish and Portugese but I do not know how well though. I would think she communicates in Swedish with her family and I remember very well that she mentioned in one of her interviews that her children think her Swedish is deficient.

But I agree with Yennie. Really, I don't find her Swedish that poor. I think she makes herself clear in her interviews although she sometimes struggles to find the right words. Her Swedish accent is like Arnold Schwarznegger's (sp?) English accent.

Yennie

09-28-2004 05:31 AM

Quote:

Her Swedish accent is like Arnold Schwarznegger's (sp?) English accent.

Yes! That is true :) never tought of that before, haha

I dont know if Silvia speaks spanish but she does speak portuguese, which I belive is the official language of Brazil?
And she speaks french, german, english and ofcourse swedish. and sign language to

GrandDuchess

09-28-2004 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lyle

I'm really curious about Queen Silvia's language issues...so what language does she speak with her husband and children? If her Swedish is so poor it would seem odd that it would be the language she would use with them, but I also remember reading on one of the threads that she has an accent speaking German now, too, which would make me think that German wouldn't be her first language anymore...anyway, if anyone has any information to share I would love to hear it.

I don't find her Swedish that poor either - I mean she does speak with a German (I think it is) accent, but otherwise you can understand all that she says and she gets her message out. She does make gramatic mistakes and wrong pronounciations sometimes - but not more than that...

And Yennie is correct, she speaks (other than Swedish): German, French, Spanish and Portuguese - and all of them very well. She gets the use of her wide language knowledge at State Visits, official visits - and also the Nobel Banquet every year. I remember once that some laureate commented that our Queen spoke wonderful Portuguese.

Yes, it is a very good and correct "Brazilian" Portuguese. She has got just a tiny accent but it is that kind of accent one can get rid of when spending some time around native speakers.

Meraude

08-21-2011 04:06 AM

I'm surprised that Queen Silvia still have difficulties with the Swedish language and especially that her accent is as heavy as it is after 35 years here. I know that it isn't easy to learn a new language when you are an adult, but German and Swedish are related. The hospital where I work got an influx of German-born and educated doctors 8-10 years ago and I would say that most, if not all, of them speaks better Swedish than the queen does, some of them fluently and with very little accent.

I don't know if it's true or not, but I remember that when the king and queen began dating, or perhaps even before that, there were some articles in the papers that Princess Sibylla, the king's mother, had wished that her son wouldn't marry a German-speaking woman, because she didn't want a future daughter-in-law to suffer as much as she had because of her German accent, especially after WWII. There have been very little complaints about the queen's accent, which perhaps have to do with the fact that she was born a commoner and had an "exotic" Brazilian-born mother. If the king had married a German-born princess the situation might have been different.

janb

08-21-2011 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meraude
(Post 1305858)

... There have been very little complaints about the queen's accent, which perhaps have to do with the fact that she was born a commoner and had an "exotic" Brazilian-born mother. If the king had married a German-born princess the situation might have been different.

I think it ahve more to do with the fact that during Princess Sibylla life in Sweden Germnay occupied most of Europe (including two of the Scandinavian countries) and exterminated several millions humans. That CAN have had a negative impact on people with a german accent. When Silva came here that was a quarter of a century ago and Germany have been an ideal neigbour since.

KitKat2006

08-21-2011 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meraude
(Post 1305858)

I'm surprised that Queen Silvia still have difficulties with the Swedish language and especially that her accent is as heavy as it is after 35 years here. I know that it isn't easy to learn a new language when you are an adult, but German and Swedish are related. The hospital where I work got an influx of German-born and educated doctors 8-10 years ago and I would say that most, if not all, of them speaks better Swedish than the queen does, some of them fluently and with very little accent.

You're half right, I think. A german citizen can "understand" a lot of swedish when it's written. But mostly that origins from knowledge of frisian dialects and languages which is spoken in the north of Germany. I'm speaking a frisian dialect fluently (aside from the usual german) and do have just little problems understanding a dutch citizen when he/she is speaking. Written I understand even more. Written I also "understand" or rather recognize a lot of scandinavian words. Not just swedish but also danish and norwegian. Enough to get the meaning of most of the newspaper headlines.

But Silvia is from the south of Germany (that has completely other dialects than the frisian ones) and speaks many south european languages, that are all kind of related to each other. Portuguese, spanish, french all originate from latin. Swedish is a scandinavian language that originates from germanic languages. Just like dutch, danish, norwegian, all frisian dialects. Swedish was something completely new and not just an upgrate to something she already knew, so to speak. And she learned it at a rather high age. 32 is old to learn a completely new language from a completely new language family, even if you have the best teachers available. So maybe that's why she still has more problems with the swedish language than she should in peoples eyes (or rather ears).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lyle
(Post 130172)

I'm really curious about Queen Silvia's language issues...so what language does she speak with her husband and children? If her Swedish is so poor it would seem odd that it would be the language she would use with them, but I also remember reading on one of the threads that she has an accent speaking German now, too, which would make me think that German wouldn't be her first language anymore...anyway, if anyone has any information to share I would love to hear it.

I have heard her speaking german on many occasions and I don't think that she has an accent in any way. She just speaks very ... I don't know how to say it right because I don't know the right word. She kind of thinks of what she says before she does it. But I always have the impression that it has nothing to do with language skills but with her status today. A Queen is supposed to think of what she's saying, not just babble around. And that she definitely does. At least in german. I can't make any statements as to what she says in swedish or some other language all the time.

Btw (if i'm allowed to get a bit of-topic here), I heard Victoria speak german a few times too. She definitely has a really cute, adorable accent which leads me to think that she didn't grow up speaking german. She must have learned it when she was already a few years old. Just like her siblings, I think. Because Madeleine, who I heard saying a few german sentences in an interview in german TV a few years ago also has this particular accent. One can hear that they both (or rather all three, because I'm sure Carl Philip also knows his fair share of german even if I've never heard him speak it) speak a nordic language as first language. German isn't on the same level as it would have been if they would have grown up swedish-german-bilingual. I don't know if they maybe grew up bilingual with another mix of languages (swedish/english, swedish/portuguese, swedish/spanish, swedish/french, swedish/whatever).

OK, that have been my few pence to this matter.

Frelinghighness

08-21-2011 06:51 PM

Her english is certainly excellent, I heard an interview she gave on American TV recently. She was a bit hesitant, but that was only to make sure she was saying the right thing it seemed.

KitKat2006

08-22-2011 07:06 AM

That's exactly what I meant Frelinghighness. She thinks about what she says. But it doesn't have anything to do with lack of language skills like many people like to think.